Reviews and Recipes of a Raw Food Reveler – à la Joie de Jenn

Green Pina Colada Smoothie

January 18, 2012

For most of the country (sorry Seattle), it’s been a pretty temperate winter thus far. Despite one sprinkling of snow across the Northeast last week–which seemingly dried up over night–there hasn’t been too much to complain about this winter season. Unlike last year’s scourge of snowstorms, spawning such terms as #snowpocalypse and #snowmageddon. *shudder*

No, it would appear that the snow-gods have decided to give us a reprieve. My Midwestern home state even enjoyed a balmy 72 degree high earlier this week. I suppose it makes sense, however, given the unseasonably warm summer they had.

Now I know there are those who will lament the lack of wintry mix, and there is something to be said for the seasons– but I for one am not mourning this departure. Bring on the warm weather (and winters), I say! When it comes to temperature, the more tropic the merrier. Thus today I thought I’d share with you this whimsical tropical smoothie, which I first saw promo’d at Whole Foods over the summer.

Super simple, yet delicious. The most challenging aspect to the whole process is cutting the pineapple, and even that isn’t nearly as difficult as it looks.

I had a lot of fun making this smoothie. An interesting thing I learned about how to cut a pineapple (after googling it, natch) was that — after cutting the top off — you should leave it sitting upside down in your fridge for 20-30 minutes before de-skinning. This allows the sugars to equally distribute throughout the pineapple, which are otherwise naturally more concentrated at the bottom. Neat tip, eh?

Because we could all use a little more green in our winters.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I am going to go sip on one of these and pretend I am here:

Omg yum!! I am a total spaz when it comes to cutting pineapples, so I let my bf handle that, but that looks so good, I might have to figure it out, haha. What in the world is coconut butter, and where do you find it? I assume Whole Foods would have it… it looks DELICIOUS!

Yup, Whole Foods has it! It’s made from coconut flesh, and is essentially the same thing as coconut oil, only solidified. I definitely encourage you to try it. Speaking of, have you ever tried cutting a coconut?? Now that’s a task that requires some manpower!